Chapter IV: Adder's Tongue Family

_OPHIOGLOSSÀCEÆ_

Plants more or less fern-like consisting of a stem with a single leaf. In _Ophioglóssum_ the leaf or sterile segment is entire, the veins reticulated and the sporangia in a simple spike. In _Botrýchium_ the sterile segment is more or less incised, the veins free, and the sori in a panicle or compound or rarely simple spike. Sporangia naked, opening by a transverse slit. Spores copious, sulphur-yellow.

ADDER'S TONGUE. _Ophioglóssum vulgàtum_

Rootstock erect, fleshy. Stem simple, two to ten inches high, bearing one smooth, entire leaf about midway, and a terminal spike embracing the sporangia, coherent in two ranks on its edges. (Generic name from the Greek meaning the tongue of a snake, in allusion to the narrow spike of the sporangia.)

In moist meadows or rarely on dry slopes. "Overlooked rather than rare." New England states and in general widely distributed. July. Often grows in company with the ragged orchis. The ancient ointment known as "adder's speare ointment" had the adder's tongue leaves as a chief ingredient, and is said to be still used for wounds in English villages.

"For them that are with newts or snakes or adders stung,
He seeketh out a herb that's called adder's tongue."

Var. _minus_, smaller; fronds often in pairs. The sterile segment yellowish-green, attached usually much below the middle of the plant. Sandy ground, New Hampshire to New Jersey.

Var. _Engelmánni_. (Given specific rank in Gray.) Has the sterile segment thicker and cuspidate, the stipe slender and the secondary veins forming a fine network within the meshes of the principal ones. Virginia and westward.

Var. _arenàrium_. (From the Latin, _arèna_, meaning sand, being found in a sandy soil.) Probably a depauperate form of _Ophióglossum vulgàtum_ and about half as large. A colony of these ferns was discovered growing in poor soil at Holly Beach, New Jersey.

KEY TO THE GRAPE FERNS

(_Botrýchium_)

Plant large, fruiting in June, sterile part much divided:
Rattlesnake Fern.
Plant smaller:
Fruiting in autumn, sterile part long-stalked, triangular.
Common Grape Fern.
Fruiting in summer:
Plant fleshy, sterile part mostly with lunate segments.
Moonwort.
Plant less fleshy, segments not lunate:
Sterile part short-stalked above the middle of the stem.
Matricary Fern.
Sterile part stalked usually below middle of stem.
Little Grape Fern.
Sterile part sessile near the top of the stem.
Lance-leaved Grape Fern.

GRAPE FERNS

_Botrýchium_

Rootstock very short, erect with clustered fleshy roots; the base of the sheathed stalk containing the bud for the next year's frond. Fertile frond one to three pinnate, the contracted divisions bearing a double row of sessile, naked, globular sporangia, opening transversely into two valves. Sterile segment of the frond ternately or pinnately divided or compound. Veins free. Spores copious, sulphur yellow. (The name in Greek means a cluster of grapes, alluding to the grape-like clusters of the sporangia.)

(1) MOONWORT. _Botrýchium Lunària_

Very fleshy, three to ten inches high, sterile segment subsessile, borne near the middle of the plant, oblong, simple pinnate with three to eight pairs of lunate or fan-shaped divisions, obtusely crenate, the veins repeatedly forking; fertile segment panicled, two to three pinnate.

The moonwort was formerly associated with many superstitions and was reputed to open all locks at a mere touch, and to unshoe all horses that trod upon it. "Unshoe the horse" was one of the names given to it by the country people.

"Horses that feeding on the grassy hills,
Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels,
Though lately shod, at night go barefoot home
Their maister musing where their shoes be gone."

In dry pastures, Lake Superior and northward, but rare in the United States. Willoughby, Vt., where the author found a single plant in 1904, and St. Johnsbury, Vt. Also New York, Michigan and westward.

In England said to be local rather than rare. Sometimes called Lunary.

"Then sprinkled she the juice of rue
With nine drops of the midnight dew
From Lunary distilling."
DRAYTON.

(2) LITTLE GRAPE FERN. _Botrychium símplex_

Fronds two to four inches high, very variable. Sterile segment short-petioled, usually near the middle, simple and roundish or pinnately three to seven lobed. Veins all forking from the base. Fertile segments simple or one to two pinnate, apex of both segments erect in the bud.

In moist woods and fields, Canada to Maryland and westward; Conway and Plainfield, Mass., Berlin and Litchfield, Conn. Rare. According to Pringle it is "abundantly scattered over Vermont, its habitat usually poor soil, especially knolls of hill pastures." May or June.

(3) LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE FERN

_Botrychium lanceolàtum_

BOTRÝCHIUM ANGUSTISEGMÉNTUM

Frond two to nine inches high, both sterile and fertile segments at the top of the common stalk. Sterile segment triangular, twice pinnatifid, the acute lobes lanceolate, incised or toothed, scarcely fleshy, resembling a very small specimen of the rattlesnake fern. Fertile segment slightly overtopping the sterile, two to three pinnate and spreading.

One of the constant companions of the rattlesnake fern. New England to Lake Superior. July.

(4) MATRICARY FERN

_Botrychium ramòsum. Botrychium matricariæfòlium_

Fronds small, one to twelve inches high. Sterile segment above the middle, usually much divided. Fertile segment twice or thrice pinnate. Apex of both segments turned down in the bud, the sterile overtopping and clasping the fertile one.

The matricary fern differs from the preceding in ripening its spores about a month earlier, in having its sterile frond stalked, besides being a taller and fleshier plant. It may also be noted that in the lance-leaved species the midveins of the larger lobes are continuous, running to the tip; whereas in the matricary fern the midveins fork repeatedly and are soon indistinguishable from the veinlets. The two are apt to grow near each other, with the rattlesnake fern as a near neighbor. June.

NOTE. In 1897 A.A. Eaton discovered certain _Botrychia_ in a sphagnum swamp in New Hampshire, to which he gave the specific name of _Botrychium tenebròsum_. The plants were very small, not averaging above two or three inches high, with the sterile blade sessile or slightly stalked. Many botanists prefer to place this fern as a variety of the matricary, but others regard it as a form of _Botrychium símplex_. Borders of maple swamps, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York.

(5) COMMON GRAPE FERN

_Botrychium oblìquum_. _Botrychium ternàtum_, var. _oblìquum_

BOTRYCHIUM DISSÉCTUM, var. OBLÌQUUM

Rootstock short, its base including the buds of succeeding years. Fronds two to twelve inches or more high. Leafy or sterile segment triangular, ternate, long-petioled, springing from near the base of the plant, and spreading horizontally. From the main leafstock grow several pairs of stalked pinnæ, with the divisions ovate-oblong, acutish, crenate-serrulate, obliquely cordate or subcordate. Fertile segment taller, erect, about three times pinnate, maturing its fruit in autumn. Occasionally two or three fertile spikes grow on the same plant. In vernation the apex of each segment is bent down with a slight curve inward.

New England to Virginia, westward to Minnesota and southward.

_Botrychium obliquum_, var. _dissectum_. Similar to the type, but with the divisions very finely dissected or incisely many-toothed, the most beautiful of all the grape ferns. There is considerable variety in the cutting of the fronds. Maine to Florida and westward.

_Botrychium oblìquum_, var. _oneidénse_. Ultimate segments oblong, rounded at the apex, crenulate-serrate, less divided than any of the others and, perhaps, less common. Vermont to Central New York.

_Botrychium oblìquum_, var. _elongàtum_. Divisions lanceolate, elongated, acute.

Note: A Botrychium not uncommon in Georgia and Alabama, named by Swartz B. lunarioides, deserves careful study. It is known as the "Southern Botrychium."

(6) TERNATE GRAPE FERN

_Botrýchium ternàtum_, var. _intermèdium_

_Botrýchium oblìquum_, var. _intermèdium_

Leaf more divided than in _oblìquum_ and the numerous segments not so long and pointed, but large, fleshy, ovate or obovate (including var. _austràle_), crenulate, and more or less toothed.

Sandy soil, pastures and open woods. More northerly in its range--New England and New York. Var. _rutaefòlium_. More slender, rarely over six or seven inches high; sterile segment about two inches broad, its divisions few, broadly ovate, the lowest sublunate. The first variety passes insensibly into the second.

(7) RATTLESNAKE FERN. _Botrychium virginiànum_

Fronds six inches to two feet high. Sterile segment sessile above the middle of the plant, broadly triangular, thin, membranaceous, ternate. Pinnules lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid; ultimate segments oblong or lanceolate and scarcely or not at all spatulate. Fertile part long-stalked, two to three pinnate, its ultimate segments narrow and thick, nearly opaque in dried specimens. Mature sporangia varying from dark yellow-brown to almost black. Open sporangia close again and are flattened or of a lenticular form. In rich, deciduous woods, rather common and widely distributed.

Prince Edward Island, Minnesota, south to Florida and Texas, and north to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Var. _grácilis_. A form much reduced in size.

Var. LAURENTIÀNUM. A conspicuous variety having thick and heavy sterile fronds less finely divided than the type, with the segments crowded to overlapping. Pinnules shorter than the type, tending to be ovate, outer segments strongly spatulate. Fertile spike relatively short and stout, strongly paniculate when well developed. Ultimate segments flat, folaceous, one mm. wide. Mostly confined to the limestone district near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador, Newfoundland, Quebec, Maine, and Michigan.

Var. INTERMEDIUM. Segments of sterile fronds ultimately much spatulate, previously ovate, not overlapping. Segments of fertile fronds ultimately narrowly flattened. (For this and the other varieties see Rhodora of September, 1919.) Nova Scotia, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, northern New York, Illinois, and Missouri.

Var. EUROPÀEUM. Fertile frond less finely dissected than in type. Ultimate segments more obtuse than in type; has but very slight tendency towards the spatulate form of the two previous varieties. Pinnules lanceolate, strongly decurrent so that the pinnæ are merely pinnatifid. In coniferous forests of Canada, and confined to calcareous regions. Quebec, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Ontario, Montana, and British Columbia. Said to be rare even in Europe.